A Three-Year Comparison of Global Social Worker Working Conditions: A Three-Year Comparison of Global Social Worker Working Conditions

Social workers play a vital role in the lives of some of the most vulnerable people around the world. However, evidence increasingly shows that social workers across the world are exposed to chronically difficult working conditions. This study seeks to outline the influence of working conditions on wellbeing of social workers worldwide, and compare whether working conditions and wellbeing changed across a three-year period via a two-phase cross-sectional survey. The survey aimed to measure these working conditions and wellbeing at a national level across the world. Results demonstrated significant differences in six of seven conditions measured, with each of demands, control, role understanding, change communication, and psychological wellbeing worsening across time. These changes were particularly mirrored in European social workers. However, North American social work respondents saw improvements in role understanding and relationships with colleagues. Policy makers, professional organisations and employers need to pay attention to these findings and consider methods to be undertaken which can improve on these findings, because without improvements we will see declining working conditions and wellbeing in the sector, with all of the knock-on effects on vulnerable individuals and families that go along with the decline.